Aeolian
.
Hibari
.
They leave the train as easily as they boarded, with everyone none the wiser that there were two more people upon the platform than perhaps they should be.
The both of them wear backpacks, filled with their ill gotten goods, though Hibari feels no guilt. They had more need of them than what any of those herbivores do right now. A hat rests upon his head, the wide brim hiding his exotic features from the masses, as does Sawada's obnoxiously large sunhat.
Both of which were a good idea to don, less chance of being recognised by anyone asking after them. The weight of the pack is a steady comfort, filled with enough water to last them the day in this god forsaken place, and with enough food for two days.
Hibari would have preferred a greater amount of water, but Sawada had only been able to steal so much without being noticed, and after all, water is easier to come by that food. Judging by the heavy clouds that sit on the eastern horizon, it's going to rain soon, so if needs must, they can collect the rainwater.
Both of them have a second set of clothes, Hibari's as far from his usual style as possible, and Tsuna's as equally feminine as the dress she wears.
Without consent, his eyes drift over to the female to stare at her again, still trying to piece together the confusion situation in his head.
Sawada has been dressing as male since she joined Namimori Middle. He's never had need to look through her official documents, but all of the teacher reports have indicated her to be male, so this façade has been in effect far longer than it should have been.
Of course, Hibari is under the opinion that Sawada should never have been masquerading as male to begin with, but he doesn't have all of the facts yet. Such knowledge does not stop his fingers twitching for his tonfas, as his irritating skyrockets as he is once again reminded that he does not hold his favoured weapon upon his person at this current moment in time.
"We need money," Sawada murmurs, and her light, gossamer voice is more obvious now.
Irrationally, he's bothered by the fact a herbivore has managed to hide something so big so easily, and now Hibari wishes to dig deeper, to find out what is really going on with Sawada.
She can fight, her father is clearly involved in the underworld, otherwise they'd never have bothered to kidnap her. She is a cowardly herbivore, yet was the key to their escape from that place. She swallowed her fear and had stolen food, water and clothing.
She walks just a little behind him, closer than anyone else would otherwise dare to do so, and Hibari's eyes are once again drawn to her face. A bruise is blooming to life across her cheekbone, in which her innate clumsiness made an appearance and resulted in a suitcase crashing into her face.
But there's something about her -perhaps she has broken down like all the other female herbivores would have- that makes Hibari pay a bit more attention. There's something more to Sawada that he thought. And Hibari really hates not knowing the habits of his herd, of the herbivores that he must police.
"Meet back here in an hour, Herbivore," he orders, already scanning the streets of lowlifes to steal from.
Sawada looks discomforted at the idea of splitting up, but seems to trust in his word to meet again, because she bites her lip and nods.
The last glance he has of her for the next hour is watching the determined set of Sawada's shoulders as she walks away, dress billowing around her calves.
.
They do meet up, and Hibari is pleased that -upon beating many a thug- they have gathered enough money together to legally purchase transportation and then some.
A plane is impossible without identification, which their captors had not been thoughtful enough to provide them with.
A bus however, is not beyond their reach.
Neither of them speak the local language, though it is a complete stroke of luck when another foreigner -a tourist- turns out to speak Italian. It is at this point that Hibari learns Sawada's father is of Italian descent, and that his daughter has learnt the language in honour that portion of her family. Seeing as that means they are capable of buying tickets through the visiting Italian, Hibari slowly allows himself to come down from full alert, and instead shift into some awful hybrid of relaxed paranoia, slinking into the window seat of the bus that will be taking them to a seaside city.
From there, the plan is to sneak aboard a ship destined for the USA. From there, find the Japanese embassy. It was the very bare basics of a plan.
It would be far harder to recapture them in the USA though, and surely by now Hibari's mother has noticed his disappearance. It is unlike Hibari to be away from the home for more than twenty-four hours; she will have contacted his uncle.
With his uncle being who he is -what he is-, the man has connections. All of those friendlies will be on the lookout for Hibari. If Sawada's father holds a position inherited by bloodline law, then assuredly he too will be looking for his offspring.
All they have to do is keep out of their kidnappers hands -which doesn't appear too hard- and keep working to get back home.
Though it will smart if Hibari does not manage his return off of his own back.
"Hibari-sempai?"
Sawada stands nervously in the isle, and with a role of his grey eyes, Hibari strikes. His fingers wrap around Sawada's thin wrist, pulling her down into the chair beside him, even as she lets out a blustering squeak of surprise.
In the same moment, Hibari fixes her hat, ensuring it stays on their head, so that Sawada's unnaturally fluffy hair cannot become a key features when it comes to remembering their appearance. His own still shadows half his face, and he pays no attention to the elderly lady who frowns when they keep the headgear on.
She probably suspects something shady, and how right she is.
Just, on the wrong end of her assumptions.
"You wear the male uniform." It's a leading statement, and Hibari fully expects Sawada to tell him exactly why she does such a thing, otherwise he's going to be beating the answer out of her. Once that damn debt is out of the way of course.
The girl swallow nervously, playing with the zipper of the backpack that now rests upon her thighs, half hugged to her chest.
"Th-the bullying, it was easier to deal with… It hurts less, th-that they don't know me."
Tch. He was aware that Sawada sat at the bottom of the food chain, but to push the herbivore to hide her whole being; he clearly wasn't policing the herd as well as he had thought. That would have to change, as soon as he arrives back that is.
The lack of a mobile phone is vexing, not as much as his missing tonfas, but the irritating still remains.
"You will wear the correct uniform when we return," Hibari bites out, the sunset drawing the exhaustion that rattles his body to full force.
"H-Hibari-sempai?"
He ignores her, suddenly remembering that Sawada cracked her fingernails up badly enough to draw blood while they were escaping.
Pulling open the compartment to his bag, Hibari draws out the first aid supplies, stolen from the train's compulsory medical kit. Antibacterial wiped are first, and Hibari snatches up the girl's hands before she can even think about drawing back.
The second she's in his grasp, she does not resist, though her limbs tremble slightly. From the proximity to him, or from the come-down of adrenaline that has powered the both of them today, Hibari cannot say.
Carefully, in the same way he once treated his mother's treasured kitten, Hibari wipes at the dried blood. Infection will only slow the two of them down, and right now, he'd be obliged to help Sawada. He will not have something avoidable slow them down, just because he is not taking care of the herbivore currently entrusted in his care.
Beneath all the blood and dirt, Sawada's hands are not as bad as they could be, and it does not take him more than a few minutes to carefully wrap the length of her fingers in bandages. Not enough to restrict her movement, but to give adequate protection to the broken skin beneath.
Throughout it all, Sawada is silent, watching his every move with those big brown eyes, face twisted in some form of slacked surprise.
There's a moment of silence once he has released Sawada's hands, and she rested them in her lap, cushioned in the fabric of her stolen dress. The dying sun leaks in through the window, leaving a burning orange glow upon Sawada's skin as she quietly stares forwards.
"You should rest, Hibari-sempai," she says after another moment of silence, nervously chewing on her lip and refusing to look him in the eyes.
Typical herbivore behaviour.
She doesn't give him a chance to dismiss her words though, because she does turn to look at him, cautious as her gaze is.
"Yo-you're the better fighter, and you should be well rested. I can wake you when we arrive, o-or if there's any tr-trouble."
Excellent points.
With little fanfare, Hibari reorders himself until he's sat just right, head resting on Sawada's surprisingly comfortable shoulder, even as the girl gives a wheezing squeak of surprise.
She dare not move though, and Hibari lets himself drift off to the slow rise and fall as she breaths.
.
As promised, Hibari wakes to Sawada's ever so gentle shaking of his arm, quietly whispering his name with that cautious tone. Though drowsiness now sits heavy in her words, her movement more sluggish than they were before his brief nap.
The moon is half-heartedly climbing amongst the stars, and after a brief look at the digital clock at the front of the bus, Hibari concludes that two hours have passed by.
The bus has stumbled to a stop, the engine on a low hum that has the floor shivering beneath Hibari's sandal covered feet.
Sawada is clumsily grappling with her seatbelt, though Hibari doesn't have the slightest clue as to why she's even bothered to wear it. The scrappy little bit of fabric isn't regulation, would snap under the slightest bit of pressure, and to make his point, Hibari rips it when Sawada is too slow unbuckling for his liking.
The driver is sprouting something off in Mexican, but all of the words flow over Hibari like water.
He takes a moment to long for a shower, for clean water to run down his back and ease the tension that has been settling in, building up during their cross country run.
Sawada stumbles down the isle, and Hibari catches her elbow right before she can take a tumble down the stairs. She breathes a quiet thank you around a truly impressive yawn, and Hibari leads her away from the bus and towards to hotel entrance.
It is a cheap thing, certainly not a place he would have even given a thought to staying at in any other circumstance. As it so happens though, it appears their best option, so Hibari keeps Sawada's weak form close as he strides in.
In situations like this, he feels no shame in channelling his mother, in lifting his head high and acting the part of near royalty. Not that his mother is, but she has always had the poise for it. And to those that don't know the truth, most of the time, confidence is all that matters.
He cannot afford to act weak now, not with the currently feeble Sawada relying on him. She makes an easy target, and he knows the underworld well enough to be sure they will attempt to take her should her protector falter.
She is a young woman, foreign in features; a prime catch.
So Hibari grits his teeth against the unease of being without his favoured weapon, and he moves as if these herbivores are too far down the food chain to even be in his presence. Which is true, he's just making it explicitly clear now.
"One room," he says in English, and watches as the woman nods in understanding. Money is exchanged for the key, and while the faults of this place make Hibari cringe -make him long for his perfectly run school, for his clean home and his beautiful mother- he soldiers on.
Sawada has finally relaxed in his grip, one of her hands even tentatively resting on his forearm, though she adamantly refuses to meet his gaze with those doe-like -herbivoreherbivoreherbivore- brown eyes.
.
When he opens the door to the room they will have to occupy for the night, it takes far more restraint than it should to not turn his nose up at the accommodations.
He's not quite able to keep the disgust off of his face, so instead he settles for depositing Sawada on the bed and heading for the bathroom.
The lock is rusted, and shan't stand up to anything more than a gentle knock, but Hibari honestly cannot see Sawada attempting to kick in the door, she's far too timid for such a thing.
Secure in his knowledge that there was now a small patch of temporary territory that was his and his alone, Hibari strips himself of the stolen clothes, twisting at the handles of the shower until water begins to pour against the not so clean surface of the tiles.
The droplets are cold, the hot water of the hotel evidentially used up for the night, but right now, Hibari's past the point of caring about that now. He's more focused upon the soft blasts of water cascading down his back, slowly untangling the knots of stress that have built up as the day passed.
Tipping his head back, Hibari snatches up the complimentary shampoo, cased within a bottle smaller than his pinkie finger, and squirts half of it into the palm of his hand.
The very least he can do is leave some for Sawada, seeing as every female he knows of whines and moans when they can never keep up with their usual hygiene rituals.
It was why the females at school took such good care of their bathrooms, as opposed to the casual disinterest that most males showed their own. Not that Hibari would allow them to become vandalised, It would be a stain upon his pride for his territory to be harmed or defaced in any way. The point is, he shall leave enough of the substance for Sawada to use, even though he longs to wash every last strand of Mexico from his body.
Soaping up the leftover bubbles, Hibari quickly rubs them into the skin of his torso, longing for the usual herbal scents his mother invests in, and not the generic cleanly smell that this cheap brand offers. It is better than the sweat and dirt that lingered as a result of being held in that place though.
.
Stepping out of the shower, Hibari snatches up one of the two towels on offer, patting down his body with the off-white material before vigorously rubbing against his head.
It won't bring his hair to a state of being completely dry, but it will be enough so that droplets of leftover water do not see the need to crawl down the back of his neck. After a moment of indecision, Hibari pulls his underwear, deciding to leave the clean pair he stole for the rest of the adventure, and sleep in the ones he had been wearing today.
He's not exactly comfortable just stepping out into the next room wearing no shirt, but it is not as if he can sleep naked as he usually does, given the company he now shares.
As expected, Sawada looks up at his entrance, and then proceeds to burn red as she shuffles around him to get into the bathroom.
The shower starts up a moment later, and Hibari makes his way over to the desk and more importantly, the pen and paper that Sawada had been working over.
There's a series of scribbles, and Hibari forces himself to focus, to push past Sawada's truly terrible handwriting and get to the information she has scribbled down. It takes a moment, but Hibari realizes it's a collection of phone numbers. She's already crossed off her home phone, along with the school line. There's small mutterings wrote beside them, on how their kidnappers might be watching the line.
The word 'Father' is wrote off to a side, along with six digits that trail off when the girl realizes she doesn't remember the rest of his contact number. The question mark below are all clear indications that she doesn't hold out much hope of her estranged father caring too much about her kidnapping, and Hibari scowls.
Her grandparents, maternal ones, are the next number noted down, along with a hesitant note questioning if their kidnappers would go as far as to tap their phone conversations too. Sawada's being cautious, which is good.
It's not so pleasant to realize they have no one to get into contact with.
His own home phone is set to not accept calls outside of those pre-programmed in, and he has never bothered to remember Kusakabe's, seeing as he has it on speed dial on a phone he no longer has in his possession. His maternal grandparents are dead, and his paternal one's too traditional to actually own a phone.
Irritating.
The only number that could possibly be of use to him is Fon's, and though he detests the idea of having to get in touch with that man for help, it appears as if such a thing will be his only choice.
He can remember the vast majority of the digits, it is only the last three that he trips over, but there are only so many combinations they can be when he knows the numbers, just not the order. Given that he'd never thought he'd have to contact his uncle, Hibari had never put the effort into fully cementing the number into his head, something he now regrets.
Regardless, he scribbles down what is the most likely phone number to try once they reach the relative safety of the USA, tagging the code with the words 'uncle' and 'connections', so that Sawada won't ask stupid questions come morning.
As if summoned by the finalization of their next move, the bathroom door opens, and Sawada tentatively steps out. Hair hidden in a towel wrap, she's anxiously wearing the shirt he had abandoned on the bathroom floor. Simply enough to sleep in, and Hibari is once again reminded of the fact that Sawada is female, and as such, needs to cover the upper portion of her body as well.
"Get some sleep, herbivore," he grumbles, making his way towards the battered couch before a TV of questionable use. Not that either of them have much of a need to watch television right now, never mind the fact neither of them would understand the language.
"A-ah, Hibari-sempai?"
Pausing in where he'd been about to lie down on the couch, the demon prefect of Namimori twists his head around to look at his current companion, watching as she nervously picks at the wet bandages covering her fingertips.
"You can sh-share the bed with me. I'm small so I won't take up much room, and it's better that you're well rested, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep on my own…"
The last few words are whispered, and Sawada looks away, cheeks burning and tears gathering at the corner of her eyes.
Hibari watches her with curiosity for a moment, comparing her behaviour to the females that crowd at school. Those that admire him for his looks do so from afar, none have ever dared to approach him, his dislike of crowding well known. They wouldn't dream of daring to invite him to share their space.
Sawada is focused solely on survival, on making sure they are both well rested to face the challenges of the next day, and he can respect that.
"Fine."
She startles, but by that point, Hibari has already climbed into the left hand side of the bed, the covers tucked neatly around his form, as the chill of night slowly starts to descend upon the world.
There is a moment's pause in which nothing happens, before the bed shifts to accommodate Sawada's light weight climbing in. They lay there still for a moment, Sawada's soft breaths echoing in the room alongside his own. And just when he thinks she will comply and simply sleep, the girl decides to speak.
"Thank you, for not leaving me behind."
"Humph, you are a student of Namimori Middle, and thus, my responsibility."
Warmth suddenly seems to flood through his stomach, and Hibari pauses at the strange sensation, unsure of its origin.
Sawada's exceptionally quiet laugh, more near silent chuckles, are the only noise for a few seconds, other than the sound of her shifting about in the bed sheets.
"We-well I'm glad that of all the people I could be kidnapped with, it was someone who could balance out Dame-Tsuna."
She says nothing else, and Hibari makes no move to break the silence either. Even though he's well aware that he would have not escaped as quickly without Sawada's presence, even though she's been far more useful, even though she hasn't broken apart like the vast majority of the herbivores would have done.
No, Hibari thinks, he doesn't balance out a useless herbivore.
He gives the girl a reason to prove she is not the incompetent her herd has made her out to be.
.
When Hibari wakes up, it is in a far different situation than what he had fallen asleep in.
For a start, he is lying on his left-hand side, half upon his arm and with something tickling at his nose.
Opening his eyes, Hibari realizes that the substance making his face twitch is in fact Sawada's hair, which is now far softer than it looked before. She appears to have shed the towel she'd worn to bed at some point in her sleep, leaving it sprawled half beneath her head, and half across the pillow.
More importantly, he and Sawada appeared to have shuffled ever closer to one another in the night.
She's lying on his half outstretched arm, his other limb wrapped up between hers and cradled to her chest. Even their legs seem to have ended up in a wild tangle of appendages, and the loose blankets do not help his attempt to understand where his legs end and Sawada's begin.
The slight curves of her chest pressing against his taunt forearm are incredibly distracting, perhaps even more so than the sun leaking in through the window and landing on his eyes, if only for the fact it is the first time such a distraction has ever caught his attention.
He's looked at other females before, weighed up their potential of course, but observing and actual contact are two very different beasts.
It takes a moment for Hibari to register the heat upon his cheeks, and when he does, a scowl crosses his face. He is a carnivore, and he will not be effected like this, he will not be ruled by his emotions as the herbivores are.
Looking down at the nearest herbivore in question, Hibari begrudgingly grants the girl her dues.
She has, after all, managed to keep it all together, as emotional a creature as she is. Perhaps Sawada's placement at the bottom of the chain isn't as true to her character as he'd previous thought.
Regardless, his arm is starting to go numb.
"Sawada."
The girl grumbles slightly beneath her breath, and it takes a second for her to register his voice. The moment she does though, the girl's eyes snap open, and she all but throws his arm away, letting out a painfully loud screech of shock.
It'd be amusing, were he not so damn close, were they not being tracked by men of clearly criminal intentions.
His hand slaps over her mouth, and he only just manages to reel back in the vast majority of his strength at the last moment.
"Be quiet," he grumbles, the order broken by the yawn that scrambles to escape his mouth.
Hibari raises his half deadened hand to cover the action, ignoring Sawada wide brown eyes watching his every movement.
Running a hand through his hair, Hibari blinks one, then twice, scowling at the collection of strands that stand up from where his head has been resting against the pillow. He climbs off the bed, snatching up his pack and making a beeline for the bathroom.
At the last second, the manners his mother has valiantly tried beating into him rear their untimely head, and the Disciplinary Committee Head scowls.
"Use the bathroom, herbivore. Be quick."
.
Sawada is thankful quick indeed, and emerges five minutes later, dressed and looking far more like a female than she did the previous day. It's obvious she uses some form of product to style her hair normally, as now that is has only been washed, half of it hangs around her shoulders in an evidentially more feminine cut that the previously wild mess she adopts.
Hibari is just as quick to dress, stuffing yesterday's clothes into the backpack and resolutely ignoring the fact the stolen shirt now smells far more like Sawada than it does him.
"Hibari-sempai, this number-"
"My uncle," Hibari grudgingly admits, taking note of the fact Sawada has managed to get over her stutter. For now.
"He has connections that will be necessary for our return to Namimori." If Sawada's father was intent on keeping the girl out of his line of work by keeping her ignorant, Hibari would play along too.
Just for now.
"I shall call him when we reach the USA."
It was safer over there, there were more eyes in that nosy country, than what there appeared to be here in Mexico. Hibari had never had any intention of ever leaving Japan before, and after this experience, his plans won't be changing anytime soon.
"Okay," Sawada murmurs, adjusting the flowery skirt that she's decided to don today. Another good idea, those idiots are looking for a young tomboy, not a girl happy to play up her gender.
"Come along, herbivore, we have a boat to catch."
.
Sneaking aboard a ship to the USA was significantly harder than the Mexican train, but the two of them had managed. It involved dropping their bags in one set of cargo and all but immersing themselves within a clutch of live chickens, but it had happened.
Setting foot on USA soil and knowing that they were far, far away from Mexico, made things significantly easier.
The trip had taken near twenty two hours, and in that time Hibari had found himself lazily listening to Sawada, whenever she bothered to open her mouth and talk. Her conversations were hesitant, as if she knew it was a fifty-fifty chance of him bothering to listen.
But she knew the right things to talk about. She spoke of how her father had pushed her into learning self defence on one of his very few visits home, how she'd kept it up because in a fight, that was the only time she didn't seem to trip over her own two feet. How she'd learnt cooking from her mother, and been forced to pick up the lock-picking skill whenever her classmates had decided to lock her in cleaning supply closets, otherwise she'd have spent hours in there.
She'd even cautiously mentioned that she was glad he'd established the Disciplinary Committee, as he and the members constant patrolling meant that there was less opportunities for the bullies to take up their usual grudges with her.
Hibari doesn't have the slightest clue as to why they would bother Sawada, as far as he is concerned, she is one of the more likeable herbivores. Like a fluffy little rabbit among pigs and cows; she has a bit of charm about her.
He does know one thing though, Sawada is now under his complete protection, and that is not something that will change when he returns home.
He's not going to tell her this though, because Sawada is an unusually righteous character, and will probably try to stop him from going through with this course of action. Because she can defend herself, but she does not do so. It's wrong, she says, to beat up those who don't know how to defend themselves.
Never mind that the herbivores are doing exactly that when they circle her like vultures.
Shouldering the bag that smells far more pleasant than he does at this moment in time, Hibari strides forwards, completely intent on finding a phone he can use to contact Fon.
Beside him, Sawada scampers alongside him to keep up, having finally plucked the last of the chicken feathers from her hair. He's not particularly worried about any disease from the birds; they are heading for a slaughterhouse, future food for the masses.
Sawada clearly didn't appreciate it at all, judging by the whimpers that escaped her lips whenever one of the birds got a little too close. Ten minutes into their journey, and she'd caved, sitting so close beside him that he could feel the heat of her arm against his own. The birds had stayed away from him, registering predator to their prey status.
An hour into their journey, when the chill of being out on the open ocean had set in, Sawada had pulled out a blanket, clearly stolen from the hotel. And though she'd looked quite upset over that fact, she'd still thought far enough ahead to know they would be in need of that.
She had good survival instincts, Hibari would grant her that.
Fingers run through his hair, and Hibari pauses, turning to look at Sawada and she pulls a feather free of his locks.
"Sorry, it was bugging me," she whispers, chewing nervously and biting on her lip. There are few people around, given that it is still early morning here in the USA, but the few that are look at them charily.
"We need to get to a bigger city," Sawada murmurs, looking around again with shrewd brown eyes, taking careful note of them less than reputable side streets, "somewhere that hasn't had recent interactions with Mexico."
Of course, one more layer of safety won't hurt them.
Nodding, Hibari takes a glance around the town, well aware that what little remained of their ill-gotten currency was useless here. It appeared they would be stealing a car, once again.
"Come along, Sawada."
.
Once again, the Disciplinary Committee comes through for him. Palming the wheel arc of each car they walk past, the twenty-fourth one wields some results, having the car keys tucked neatly under the metal framework. Typical getaway cars, usually used by criminals; it was nice to know the minds of Americans and Japanese thugs thought alike.
Sawada says nothing as she slides into the passenger seat once again, hair fluttering about brushing against the skin of her shoulders.
Now that he has seen her, seen Sawada looking so feminine, it's becoming more and more difficult to put her back into that little box she occupied earlier.
Dame-Tsuna is nothing more than a mask though, and Hibari will not allow her to hide behind it any longer, not when she's already proven that she is useful and resourceful.
Kusakabe was the last person he'd come across with any kind of potential, and now the male was capable of holding the Disciplinary Committee together in his absence. Putting Sawada in there, they two of them might even be able to run it correctly without him watching their every move.
But that is another thing to address when they get back, he will put it off for now, and leave Sawada in the agreeable mood she currently exhibits.
Taking another look at the petrol gauge, Hibari runs the calculations through his head, and comes to the conclusion they have about five hours to drive before running completely out of gas.
"Sawada, look at the map, find the biggest town in a five hour radius."
The girl jumps slightly at the sound of his voice, but she begins rooting through the dropdown compartment immediately.
Checking the mirrors one last time to make sure there were no followers, Hibari relaxes slightly into his seat, and just enjoys the wide open space blurring around them.
A significant step up from compared to the cargo ship.
.
"Please be polite, Hibari-sempai."
Sawada's voice is quiet as she whispers, so much so that he can hear his own teeth steadily grinding together.
They had been driving for as long as they possibly could, and now, they had arrived in a town of reasonable size, homely with little sign of gang activity.
And Hibari knows what he's looking for on that front, so he's relatively sure that they are safe.
Still, this place is foul, in every sense of the word. He can practically smell the grease that lingers in the air, a heavy and choking scent that drowns all others.
Sawada has already hinted that she would quite like to eat, and seeing as she was the one to pickpocket the money they now have, there's no way Hibari can possibly say no to her, not right now.
So, it is with an impressive level of annoyance that he orders for the two of them, being the most proficient at English as he is. Sawada isn't terrible with the language, but Hibari has been studying to for longer, and as such, has a much better grasp on how to use the language with regards to speaking with natives. The woman at the counter seems quite bemused, and he's reasonably certain he hears the word 'date' in there somewhere, and that just sets the scowl firmly on his face.
Sawada peeking shyly up at him from beneath her thick eyelashes is not helping in any way at all.
They eat quietly, Hibari choking down the substance this infernal place dared to pass off as food, while Sawada seems quite pleased with the vast array of sauces spread out before her. Hibari cannot wait to get home, to eat real food again, none of this processed trash that passes for nutrient here.
It is no wonder the USA are suffering from a rising increase in obese children, teens and adults. Not when this food is so easily accessible and cheap. Why they would put their bodies through this torture though, Hibari doesn't have the slightest idea.
"Do you think they'll let us use their phone if we ask?" Sawada questions, plucking up another French-fry and nibbling upon the slightly crisp edge. Hibari, who had only dared to try stomaching a burger, had already finished his meal, and found himself lounging around, waiting for Sawada to finish.
"I mean, we both look foreign, and as long as you ask ni-nicely like before…"
She trails off, worrying her lip between her teeth, and Hibari follows the motion for a moment. There are granules of salt sticking to her lip, and it holds his attention for perhaps longer than it should.
Rattled by the sudden focus he has on Sawada, Hibari gets to his feet, stalking off towards the countertop that he had previously spoken over to purchase their… meals. If they could be given such a title.
It takes another moment for the woman to notice him, but she does turn blue eyes on him, and Hibari takes a moment to appreciate the colour before he speaks.
"…Excuse me, my friend and I have been separated from our guardian. May I use your phone to contact him?"
She blinks, flash lashes fluttering before a patience, almost gentle smile crosses her face.
"Of course, if you'll follow me to the back office."
Nodding, Hibari turns to Sawada, whom has at last finished her meal, and gestures for her to get up and follow after him.
She does so, but not before taking the time to place their rubbish in the trash and hand their tray to the bemused worker, offering a nervous little bow as she does so.
What a herbivore.
Hibari is momentarily horrified by that thought, and how it almost sounds, fond, within the safety of his own mind.
No, they are so close to getting out of this, he'll worry about Sawada and whatever mischief her little herbivore brain was up to later.
.
The first two codes he puts in are a bust.
The first does not even ring, simply making that infernal dialling noise, and the second one, a woman of questionable background answers.
Sawada's face is slowly crumpling, nerves showcased in her every expression, and it sets something rumbling inside of Hibari's chest.
He sits in the plush leather chair of the staff room, the woman having apparently decided they looked like trustworthy folk -if she had any idea just how much they'd stolen, how many laws they'd broken, in the past three days, she'd probably be regretting it- and had left them alone.
The phone rings thrice in his ear, and then, a so damningly familiar voice answers it. Hibari cannot help the pinch of relief that settle in behind his ribs, even as Sawada reads something on his face that has her sagging in thanks for the universe's mercy.
Fon answers in Mandarin, the traditional greeting, but Hibari opens in Japanese, mainly for Sawada's benefit. The girl had said she could only speak Italian fluently, though her English was complete rubbish.
It'd be a comfort to the girl to hear their native language, Hibari thinks.
"Carnivore," Hibari scoffs down the phone, and things go tense on Fon's end, even as Sawada perks up at the term of address, even going so far as to mouth the word under her breath with a puzzled look on her face. It's almost, dare he say it, cute. Now he knows he's spent far too long in the herbivore's company.
"Where are you, Kyōya?"
"America. Originally held in Mexico, alongside Sawada Tsunayoshi."
He looks to the girl to see if she corrects him about the typically male name, but the girl's cheeks just pinken instead. Huh, how unfortunate.
The knowing silence on Fon's end lets him know that in the mafia world, there had probably been a rather large search for the girl sitting across from him. He'd guessed her father was high up on the scale, but it appeared he had underestimated if anything, given that his recluse of an uncle was feeling the waves.
"Sawada you say?"
Fon murmurs calmly, though by the slight wisps of wind that echoed down the phone, Hibari guesses his uncle is currently in motion.
"Stay where you are, Kyōya, or at the very least, in the general vicinity."
And though it grates of him to have to do as ordered, Hibari conforms.
"Understood."
.
Of course, things never go that easily.
They step out into the town and are slowly walking around, trying to find somewhere to kill the time before Fon arrives. Sawada has relaxed, significantly so, even going so far as to walk closely beside him. When faced with a greater fear than what her misconceived perceptions of him had created, Sawada had come to associate protection and comfort with his presence, oddly enough.
Not only that, but she appears to have come more into her own, grown into something more than the rumoured 'Dame-Tsuna' that has been so commonly talked about within Namimori Middle.
No, out of the whole herd he polices, Sawada would have been one of the ones he chose last as his preferred kidnap victim.
Yet, she had been far more helpful than what he'd have ever predicted from the rest of the crowd. Sawada's hand grips at his elbow for a second, and Hibari skids to a halt at her sheer audacity to touch him without warning.
The gunshot rings through the air half a second before the glass just behind the shatters.
Hibari's heart leaps, and the sudden strike of knowledge that the bullet missed because Sawada suddenly stopped and sensed something was off, does not escape him.
In the same second, he twists, grabbing the female and shoving the both of them behind a car, just as more bullets pepper the ground where they stood.
There's cries of surprise and terror from all those currently on the street, and Hibari grimaces, because his tonfas are absent and with only knuckledusters, he is woefully underarms against this kind of strike.
Before he can so much as reorient himself, the cool barrel of a gun pressed against the back of his neck, and Hibari freezes.
Sawada gives a muffle whimper, and taking a moment to glance at her from beneath the safety of his shrouded eyes, Hibari notes she is staring at him in horror.
Sawada can still move, doesn't have a gun -that they can see- tracked on her.
So why isn't she running?
"Time to go back to your cage, brat. With the Vongola's warpath, we need you alive."
The assailant's eyes twist around to look at him, and Hibari's teeth grind as he calculates the chances of knocking the man out before he can fire his gun.
The numbers are depressingly low.
"This one though, he's not necessary, seeing as the Storm Arcobaleno hasn't come running."
So they were going to use him against Fon.
It is always nice to know when his guesses were correct. The fact he is going to die as he is less useful than Sawada -evidentially her father was way up there on the food chain- is less of a comfort.
Sawada seems to realise it at the same second too, because something in her just... snaps.
.
It's an explosion of power, burning orange flames, and at the centre of it all, Sawada stands with a striking calmness upon her features.
The flames blast their nearest assailant away, and Hibari, ever to opportunist, throws one of the knuckledusters at another, knocking him unconscious.
Then, Sawada is moving, far faster than should be possible, and as Hibari takes down one of their would be captors, she has finished off four more. All the while still with that startlingly calm nothingness on her face.
And truly, there is little more he can do other than breathe a surprised, "Wao."
For who knew that Sawada was hiding something as ferocious, and powerful and carnivorous as this beneath her unassuming masks?
When all the enemies are down for the count, Sawada sways, and the brilliant orange flame -it felt like home, why does the flame call to him?- fades.
Then, she drops like a rock.
The only one now standing on the street, Hibari approaches his travelling companion, swift and cautious.
Where that had come from...
He recalls Fon, back when he was much younger than what he is now, performing some kind of kata that drew up something that flared red. Hibari had only been three at the time, and his uncle had been adamant that he'd imagined it.
But he's heard his mother refer to Fon as the 'Storm Arcobaleno', whatever that means, and he knows he is involved in the criminal underworld.
And now, Sawada, also with criminal connections can exhibit the same strange energy?
.
Yes, she has suddenly got a lot more interesting.
So, here's chapter 2, the longest of the three chapters. A good bit of development for Tsuna, and of course, proof that Hibari is in fact, a teenage boy. I figured that Hibari would refer to Fon as a carnivore, because in the manga, during the Rainbow battles, he jabs and Fon and indicates 'that's my prey', thus sort of a round about way of acknowledging him?
I'm glad that of all the feedback I've gotten so far, things are positive; I hope the lot of you like this chapter too.
Tsume
xxx